halloween... and other fun!

david reading a story to nora and everett... his sister, moira, came to join the kids on david's lap soon after this pic!!

jeffrey and nora felt like such big kids sitting on the couch together!! nora was all dressed up in her dalmation costume, and jeffrey was all festive in orange!!!

you can't tell, but my cake is in the shape of a pumpkin! it was SO good!!! and the beautiful leaves on the counter were hand crafted for us by alyssa!!! (way better than williams sonoma!!)

a family picture... you can just see the top of my belly!!!

so, this was thursday. nora didn't want to eat off of a spoon. and i didn't have the energy to fight with her! so, she ate her oatmeal with her fingers, and when she was done, this was her attempt to finish off the rest!! at least it was BEFORE i dressed her for the day!!

on tuesday, we found out that we are having a boy. we are going to name him james patrick haile. the doctors had some concerns on tuesday, so we went back on thursday for a bigger and better ultrasound with more specialized doctors. what we found out is this... james is still a boy!! (whew!!) he also has club feet and a shortened femur. otherwise, he is structurally and physically fine, as far as they can tell. this all means that there is a slightly higher risk of a chromosomal abnormality, but as david put it... "i would go to vegas with those odds!!!" the odds are still in our favor! either way, his heart, etc seem to be functioning just fine! and we are THRILLED about that. plus... many awesome people have had club feet!! troy aikman, kristi yamaguchi, mia hamm (although david doesn't really want his boy to be a figure skater!!)... and more who have emailed me about it! (but for their privacy, i will decline from commenting... but i think they are pretty awesome people who have done awesome things) all this makes us very confident that james patrick is in pretty good company.

david lobbied pretty hard for the name lebron james haile. james patrick seemed to be a good compromise. and, if james isn't going to start out being the best basketball player, david then decided that tiger woods haile might be a better name! either way, david is VERY excited to have a boy in the house!

it hit me on saturday. i was walking through babies r us, and i usually avoid the boy section all together. i had to walk through it to get to something, and realized... "i'm having a boy!!!" ha ha... no more pink!!

on a more serious note... it's been a fantastic week. david and i picked the name james because we LOVE that book of the Bible. i haven't gone through it recently, and stef called this morning to remind me of a verse in James... 1:2-4- "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perserverance. Perserverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." that pretty much sums up our week. it was an incredible test on our faith, and God was faithful. He always is! david and i both felt a peace that passes all understanding, in the midst of not knowing what was wrong and what the doctors would find. we both really understood that God is GOOD, ALL THE TIME!! His goodness is not dependent on our circumstances. (and, we came to this conclusion before the appointment on thursday!!) it is amazing knowing that HE is in control and is forming this baby to be EXACTLY how He wants james to be! i think the genetics counselor thought we were in utter denial, because we were so calm and peaceful about it all!!

on the upside, i didn't think about the upcoming election at all!! and, it reaffirmed my faith that God is in control of that, too!! no matter WHO wins!!